cupp, that plus mortal -- mortal political combat meets presidential politics. yeah, we are going there. >> get ready for a special edition of "the cycle" on this debate wednesday, october 3rd. it starts right now. >>> it is debate day at the university of denver. as i said, we are just six hours away. you know, when i think of major events in denver, i always think of don meredith you can the old monday night football broadcaster who said, welcome to the city that's mile high and so am i. i'm not high the way don was but high with excitement in anticipation for this debate tonight. we have been waiting, it seems, for months for this thing. let's set the stage before we get going. you know, sometimes i think the cliche cliches are true. this is one of them. we heard talk about how? a do-or-die for mitt romney n a lot of ways it really is. there are basically three possible outcomes, the way i see it tonight. someone that romney really does get some kind of a lift out of this it's a command performance, maybe some kind of slipup by obama. you think of john kerry